News Flash

It has taken several years but Americans are finally getting the picture when it comes to George Bush. His new poll numbers are actually the worst he has ever had. I posted this story on ShortNews and decided to re-post it here...

United States President George W. Bush's approval rating has dropped again to a new all time low. According to a poll of 1,018 American adults conducted in late February only 34% of American's believe Bush is doing a good job.

The same survey also noted that 59% of Americans disapproved of his work. Only 30% believed his handling of Iraq was good. 62% stated that efforts in Iraq are going badly. 70% believe that the UAE takeover of American ports should be blocked.

The only good news for the administration was that 67% forgave Dick Cheney for shooting a man in the face. But only 18% said they liked him. 46% of those polled said they had a negative opinion of the Vice President.

The poll margin of error was 3%. [Source]

Stop Screwing The Waitress

The way we treat waitresses and to some extent waiters in this country disgusts me.

Last night I was playing poker in a hotel and overheard one waitress bragging to another that her hourly rate had been increased from $2.13 an hour to $2.16 per hour. She was clearly kidding about the offensive pay increase, but she was not kidding about what she gets paid.

In Tennessee, where I live, it is quite common for restaurants and bars to pay their staff $2-$3 per hour. The rest of their income is derived from the charity of others in the form of tips. In one bar I frequent if a waitress makes a mistake with an order, or a customer leaves without paying the full price of the order is deducted from her tips. I understand this is also a common practice.

Astonishingly after taking home their pitiful wages at the end of the year the federal government will tax them on not only their $2 per hour income but also on their tips. Let's not forget that the tips were gifts for good service, and were not earned wages.

As far as I am concerned any waiter or waitress should be subject to the same minimum wage laws as anyone else. In addition tips should not be taxed. If the government need more revenue they can easily get it by reversing the outrageous and unnecessary tax breaks on the wealthy elite and give it back to the exploited workers who work in horrible smoky bars with crappy wages, no paid vacation, no benefits and dreadful hours.

For more information, take a look at this book.

U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher

I recently decided to write to Rick Boucher, a Democrat from Virginia. He was pissing me off with his mindless Bill to further restrict internet gambling.

Why is this concept so difficult to grasp for these people? Millions of Americans love to gamble. It is part of their heritage. Millions of Americans visit Las Vegas, buy lottery tickets, play in their weekly poker game and so on. Millions of Americans like to play poker, bet sports or gamble on the internet and for some reason the decision is being made that the proper response to this is to restrict the rights of Americans and take away more of their freedom.

Right now in the state of Tennessee where I live, I can go out and buy a lottery ticket and have the chance to win an astounding $365,000,000! I can also go and buy a lottery ticket with a chance to win a trip to Las Vegas and a buy in at the $10,000 main event of the World Series of Poker. Why are they doing this? Because people like to gamble and people love poker.

Yet this Boucher guy thinks that instead of bringing online gaming companies to America, regulating them, taxing them and monitoring what they do, the answer is to outlaw them. To push the problem underground where it can never be properly regulated and taxed. How is this smart?

Right now a bunch of terrorists could open an online casino in Antigua, use it to launder money and then shut it down stealing all the players money. We have no control over it. In fact the World Trade Organization recently told America that trying to block use of such off shore gambling sites is illegal.

So we have a simple choice, try and use prohibition, or regulate, tax and monitor. Is common sense so hard to find these days?

If Rick Boucher ever writes me back I will post his response on this blog. But in the meantime if you believe that prohibition is wrong and that taking away the rights and protection of Americans is stupid why not write to Rick Boucher? Tell him that we would rather wager our money in safe American based, American regulated companies. Tell him that we would rather these companies pay American taxes to help reduce the horrible deficit that George Bush has created. Tell him that freedom is a good thing. Tell him to cut off his comb-over. Tell him to do something useful instead of trying to jail people that play poker online.

"You can not stop the spread of an idea by passing a law against it." - Harry S. Truman

Super Bowl XL

It would be fair to say I know little about sport. Certainly when it comes to American Football I am at a loss. Some guys run around for ten seconds or less and then mill around for a couple of minutes getting ready for their next move. It's like watching a game of chess. It almost seems as if the game were designed with commercial TV in mind because the game lends itself so well to hours of commercials.

I believe that the same psychology is in play in gambling and in American Football. When playing a slot machine there can be hours of boredom punctuated with a few seconds of excitement when you win. In football it seems the same way. Most of the game involves a few seconds of running followed by a group of men grappling each other on the ground. Then some more men talk about it for a while, then some commercials, then they start again a few feet from where they started last time. During all of this (except the commercials) some old guys who appear to be getting paid by the word talk quickly about what we are watching, as if we were perhaps blind, and then also interject some boring trivia about various related topics including past games.

It's all very weird. But as a Brit living in America, I believe it necessary to sit through it each year, because there are a few seconds of entertainment in there, the occasional player who makes a run for it and scores, or an amusing commercial. Yes the culture has already brainwashed me into looking forward to Super Bowl commercials.

One of the things I do look forward to as a non-sports fan is the half time show. I've seen some great stuff too, Sting, Gwen Stefani, Paul McCartney and U2. But ever since the incident of the evil semi-nude tit, the powers that be are crapping in their pants about any controversy whatsoever. I guess this is why they hired the geriatric rockers to perform.

I guess I too can't get no satisfaction, because this half time show was a total pile of crap. It was quite unpleasant to see these old men stumbling about the stage singing songs that are almost as old as the Super Bowl itself. Equally though I don't want the show too far the other way as they did one year when the show was nothing more than a bunch of rappers shouting about rims, guns, money and bitches.

All I'm saying is hire some people who are in their 20s or 30s to make some decisions about what bands to hire. There is plenty of talent out there without looking to aging rockers who have passed their sell-by date.

On another note I found it terribly sad to hear that such an inoffensive group of old men had been censored twice during their performance. It's another win for the puritans, and another sad day for free speech.

Thank You Mr. Bush

Dear George Bush,

I'd just like to thank you for your new Deficit Reduction Act. It sounds like a great way to silence those whinning liberals who lack your vision. Once you reduce the deficit, you'll be leaving those Michael Moore loving idiots with nothing left to whine about.

I was particularly impressed with how you manage to save all that money by cutting government involvement in over 140 unnecessary government programs that help the poor. It's about time the poor and elderly got off their lazy asses and earned some money. Let's face it if you or I can make money, anyone can right?

Personally, I am looking forward to the cuts in Medicare and Medicaid that account for around half the savings this act will provide. Maybe you've found a way of taking care of those baby boomers after all! I would respectfully suggest that you infact scrap these unnecessary programs. Let's face it if someone cannot afford their own health care costs they are nothing more than a useless burden on society, and the sooner they die the better.

I am also pleased to see so much money being sent to our friends in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's just great. I'd hate for them to think ill of us.

If only I could vote, and if only you were able to run again I would be so excited about 2008 when I would have the chance to vote you in for a third term. Your special kind of brilliant planning is what America has lacked for so many years.

Thank you Mr. President,


Your loyal servant.

PS I would hate to question your incredible leadership and business savvy, but why is it you have gone to all that trouble to save over the next five years only to give $60bn - $95bn back in tax cuts for the wealthy? Won't that mean we have more of a deficit not less? Forgive me, I don't have your head for figures. Maybe you can have one of your minions explain it to me. Thank you sir.

Yahoo, get your shit together!

I really like Yahoo! I don't know why really, because since they split from Google and made their own search engine it sucks. About every time you do a search it gives you a bunch of spam pages which are not useful results. They charge too much to get listed and their hosting has some annoying traits to it.

On the plus side their web based email (with optional POP3) is second to none. I even switched hosting of some of my web sites to them just to get their very cool email. They are working on a new beta version of their email which is very impressive.

Even their music concept is quite innovative. You listen to a series of songs and rate them. Based on your ratings and your pre-selected preferences the station tries to play you music you like. In an effort to make money they offer a higher quality commercial free version if you agree to pay them a monthly or annual fee. Now I have been very tempted to do this, but every time I am about to part with my hard earned cash their system fucks up. Right now the UK version of my station is displaying a weird computer error. I've also had errors because the station ran out of songs to play. I've had various other errors including a message that I had listened to too many tracks that month.

Frankly for a company that is hoping I give them money for an upgrade service, they have a long way to go. Fix the damn bugs, make Launchcast work on the Mac and with FireFox, and don't let me run out of songs. I seriously love the concept, but if they ever want to earn my cash they are going to have to step up and stop trying to palm off this crappy buggy software while still expecting me to give them money.

Hooters Cheerleader Booted

Kimberly Sams, a former student at East Tennessee State University, has claimed that she was kicked off the college cheerleading squad for working at Hooters.

According to Sams, the coach approached her with no prior notice and kicked her off the team. The coach allegedly told her that working for Hooters was unacceptable and violated the athletic code. Read more...

Now call me an idiot, but this sounds like a pile of crap to me. Here is a girl who represents her mediocre college by putting on a tight fitting top and mini skirt and jiggles around while some boys play sport. But when she puts on a similar uniform, but with a pair of less revealing shorts, this is deemed unacceptable?

According to the news article the boys basket ball team have gone to Hooters to eat, which was not even questioned by the college authorities. However, a girl working there is some kind of evil sin?

Frankly the whole concept of cheerleading is foreign to me. It appears to be a demeaning concept asking girls to jiggle around while the boys play sport. In an effort to make the jiggling all the more impressive many girls receive quite serious injuries during their acrobatics.

This coach Tammy Barrow strikes me as rather a mindless bint if she actually did boot Sams for being a waitress. Quite frankly any legal activity that this woman wishes to engage in when not cheerleading has nothing to do with the college, and I don't quite see how they have the right to judge people in this manner.

There is not much I find more annoying than some prudish asshole trying to impose their 'moral values' on others. I sincerely hope that Kimberly finds herself a particularly aggressive and vindictive lawyer and sues the crap out of these sexist fuckers at ETSU. I also believe that Mrs Barrow needs to immediately tender her resignation.